It's World Aids day today so let's take a moment to forget about our insipid economy and turbulent politics and pat ourselves on the back. We have come a long way from offering beetroot to people gravely ill with a disease that President Thabo Mbeki denied existed.The numbers tell the story.Almost 3.5million people in South Africa are now on antiretroviral treatment for HIV, more than anywhere else.We also have the cheapest HIV drugs. It costs only R1000 to treat a state patient with ARVs for a year.Our national average life expectancy has jumped from an average of 52 years to 62 since treatment for HIV became readily available- the kind of advance previously associated with the end of a war.And we are at the forefront of scientific discovery. About 80% of all HIV trials have a South African link - they are either done here or involve local researchers.Yesterday clinical trials began that might well lead to the development of a vaccine against HIV.Just last week, researcher Lynn Morris of Wits and the National Health Laboratory, who is studying the types of antibodies that are effective against HIV, was named as one of the world's most frequently cited researchers in the fight against the disease.But more needs to be done.Our infection rate is about 1000 a day and treating HIV-positive people to make them uninfectious is not working fast enough to cut the figure.A four-year study by the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies released at the International Aids Society Conference recently was incredibly depressing.Despite researchers making diagnosis and access to treatment easier, with home testing and mobile clinics, many people, mostly men, don't get treatment quickly enough - or at all.Many are still choosing to die when life-saving medication is freely available.The war is far from over...